Cuba aims to get homegrown Abdala vaccine approved by WHO

Havana: Cuba is looking forward to getting its homegrown COVID-19 vaccine ‘Abdala’ approved by the World Health Organisation – WHO. To date, none of the homegrown Cuban vaccines got approval from the United Nation’s health agency.

The Director of science and innovation at Cuba’s state-run pharmaceutical conglomerate, BioCubaFarma, is hopeful that this year, Cuban vaccines will be verified, adding, “We have already made a formal request to the prequalification of our one vaccine that is Abdala. We are in the process of final review of the documentation, and it should be sent in the subsequent days to the WHO”. The remarks were made by the Director on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

Moreover, the application, along with the documents of another Cuban vaccine, Soberana 2, is likely to be sent in the forthcoming days, and it is being expected by the healthcare authorities of the Caribbean island that the vaccine will gain WHO approval by this year only.

The news comes along with announcement that the Cuban government had secured funding to produce a total of 200 million vaccine doses for low-income nations across the world.

Meanwhile, the health controller of the island – (CECMED) has approved the use of all the three Cuban COVID-19 vaccines, which are yet on the list to get approval from WHO officials. Cuba has also exported its homegrown coronavirus vaccines to several nations such as – Iran, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Vietnam, noting that all of its vaccines contain an efficacy rate of more than 80%.

The Caribbean island managed to become the first-ever country in the world, which is vaccinating the population of toddlers against the deadliest COVID-19 virus, for which it has been commended by international health agencies.

The study shows that the Abdala Cuban vaccine is 92.3% effective; Soberana 2 contains an efficacy rate of 92.4% after taking the two doses and an additional dose of Soberana Plus.